Project: 21st Century Eurodem
Our working group seeks to explore how existing investment in population based studies focused on mid to later life across Europe can be aligned to: i.) provide better descriptive data on neurodegenerative disorders in contemporary older Europeans, ii.) establish core measurement protocols in order to provide a resource for risk stratification, and iii.) to assess the potential for ‘staged repurposing’ of cohorts towards prevention (primary, secondary and tertiary types).
Few studies are able to provide evidence for public health, policy and also consider the potential for intervention including accelerated designs for promising findings into general populations. At the heart of this work group are investigators who have created new epidemiological cohorts in Europe within the last decade, and those with internationally recognised expertise in the epidemiology and public health of neurodegenerative disorders.
This is an updated adaptation of the highly influential EURODEM collaboration formed a quarter of a century ago. (Including Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies, Zaragoza and Zarademp, Rotterdam, Kungsholmen and SNAC-K, Gothenburg studies and new population studies AgeDeCode and TILDA). The work group has cross European representation, brings together a diverse range of expertise of analytical techniques, field work, clinical and public health knowledge as well as trials. Workshops will focus on specific areas for which common approaches will be beneficial – the first will establish which cohorts have true population representation, and will provide a map of European studies relevant for public health, detailing their strengths and weaknesses; the second will explore the potential to repurpose such studies for primary, secondary and tertiary prevention drawing on expertise of the three prevention trials ongoing with outputs of relevance to all cohorts. The third workshop will focus on the ethical, legal and social implications of stratification and repurposing, drawing on existing learning across Europe, including the UK Dementia Platform.
Workshops 2 & 3 support other EU initiatives on trials emerging from cohorts (European Initiatives for Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease). Further workshops will cover data analysis on risk for longitudinal studies and data platforms bringing in current initiatives such as MELODEM.
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